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alphadogg writes "Motorola Solutions has unveiled a head-mounted, voice-controlled computer that's targeted at the military and other industries where workers need hands-free access to information. Called the HC1, the device runs on an ARM processor and has an optional camera to send back real-time video over a wireless network. Unlike Google Goggles, though, the HC1 is aimed at the enterprise market with a price tag of $4,000-$5,000 per unit. Areas the company has been experimenting with include 'high-end repair markets,' such as aircraft engines, said Paul Steinberg, CTO of Motorola Solutions (which is the part of Motorola Google did not acquire). 'Emergency medical personnel at trauma centers might be looking at this too.' The HC1 will augment what users see by providing additional data, he said. Multiple units could be networked together and share information. Video here. "

I have all sorts of ideas of things I'd create with an affordable device of this type and an API.
Feels like this might be the next application gold rush, if we can get an affordable one that doesn't make you look like a mouth breathing neck beard.

Then look no further then smart phones evolution. To make virtual reality affordable we need affordable high resolution screens and a lot of computing power at minimal consumption, exactly what the mobile market is pushing right now.

And so where's the ACTUAL difference between this and the Google Goggles? Besides the pricetag? (Or in other words: what justifies that price difference?)

Google Glass is a consumer level device. This is an enterprise-level device. So lots of little things, like specifications, ability to attach accessories, probably battery life. It's hard to give numbers, as AFAIK Google hasn't released detailed specifications about Glass yet, but in general, they aren't even targeted at similar markets.

I'm not familiar with the HC1 specifically, but I am familiar with Motorola Solutions products in general. They target enterprise, and typically the devices are ruggedized. They write their own web browser that includes APIs for their built-in peripherals (barcode scanner, MSR, etc.) Their Android devices also feature significant tailoring of the OS, for example they have multi-user support in an Android 2.3 build. In the past year they have acquired RhoMobile and integrated that company's cross-platfor

Depends on the industry, some companies have far deeper pockets than others, everybody operates at a different level of efficiency... besides all that man hours tend to be the big cost to most employers, so if this is proven to reduce those, the investment will pay for itself over time.

Applications. Back when Microvision was in this space, they had customers like airplane engine repair. The techs could overlay a schematic of the engine on the engine they were working on, for instance. How much is that capability worth? Probably at prices over $15K, they'd start to to question the cost effectiveness.

Besides - nothing like early adopters to help fund development of the mass-market product, all while being competent beta testers for your effort.

With a price tag like that, I'm sure this thing could pack some decent quality hardware. But the actual value of a system like this is entirely dependent on the software it comes with, and I don't know how much I trust Motorola's ability to deliver on that aspect of it.

The huge advantage of a platform like Android, iOS, Windows etc is the enormous ecosystem of third party developers, who have relatively open access to fill in all the gaps in the software feature set that originally shipped with the hardware